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Skull/Halo 2
skull appears identical to these.]] Summary A Skull in Halo 2 is an easter egg left in by Bungie to make the game more challenging or interesting, or to unlock potentials that would otherwise remain hidden. There is no information text to wield a skull, as there is with a weapon, but it can be picked up just the same, and it's effect, ranging from making the game extremely difficult to letting one grenade jump higher than ever before, lasts until the Xbox is restarted (Or in Halo 2 Vista until the game is restarted), but do nothing in non-campaign split-screen. These skulls are hidden very far out of the normal path of the level, sometimes even backwards. Every skull except the Blind Skull and the Assassin Skull, although Assassin has no effect on other difficulties, are only available in Legendary Difficulty. The Blind skull is a very handy tool when recording video, and therefore is very easy to activate. There are some discussions saying that activating all skulls will unlock a secret movie at the end like Halo: Combat Evolved (when you complete the last level on Legendary) or bring out more secret-revealing dialogue in the cut scenes. This has never been successfully tested. People curious about these unlocks have found a 15-letter code on the Halo 2 Soundtrack and thought this code was a specific order these skulls needed to be activated to unlock the secrets. This was not the case. The Skulls are mostly used by elite players to customize their gaming experience by manipulating the gameplay engines with various skull combinations. The most fearsome Halo 2 players will be playing with skulls like Mythic, which increases enemy armor and shield strength greatly (Ultra Elites even require two overcharged plasma bursts to compromise their shields.); Thunderstorm, changing all grunts and elites to their ultra rank; Envy, which allows the Master Chief to use active camouflage technology at the expense of his flashlight; and IWHBYD, which unlocks hidden dialogue and causes the AI to interact verbally more often. Note: These items are not actually part of the Halo universe, but are just tidbits Bungie left in Halo 2. Skulls video Bungie podcast ep1 *note* This dialog effect is permanent. Status: Confirmed Trivia: The skull is named after a Sergeant Johnson quote sometimes heard in Assault on the Control Room: "I would have been your daddy, but the dog beat me over the fence!" Sergeant Stacker also occasionally says this on the Silent Cartographer. The first chapter of Assault on the Control Room is also named "I Would Have Been Your Daddy." Iron Level: High Charity Directions: When you enter the final (the second) Gravity Lift, look up. A skull will pass through you extremely quickly so you must start holding X a bit before you actually pass it to grab hold of it. Difficulty: Legendary Effect: When playing co-op, if either player dies the game restarts you at your last checkpoint. The effect resembles the effect already in place on legendary difficulty. Also, on other sites it may state that allies are immune to melee attacks - that is false. Status: Confirmed Mythic Level: Sacred Icon Directions: There is a semi outdoor area which has the same type of area right next to it. There is an Enforcer in front of each one. Go past this area and down the piston and you'll be in a very dark and dank Flood infested area. There's a stack of 6 or 7 boxes as you enter the room. Use them to jump up to the landing above. There are a handful of alcoves on your right hand side. The skull is in the third alcove, floating above a dead human Flood. Difficulty: Legendary Effect: Enemies have more health and shielding, and are therefore harder to kill. Note: health and shielding increase more as the enemies rise in rank. A red Grunt will not gain as much health as a white Grunt. Similarly, a blue Minor Elite will gain a small bit of health, but an Ultra Elite will gain a ridiculous amount of both shielding and health, to the point that a Plasma Overcharge won't drop their shields even halfway. Besides that, it also makes your allies gain a small bit of health, and the skull will make allies immune to melees. Status: Confirmed Sputnik Level: Quarantine Zone Directions: At the start of the level, look to your left for an Elite. Slightly further to left of it is a tunnel. Enter the tunnel and go near the rock wall at the end of the cliff, look down it then look left. Hug the wall until you get to the end of the cliff, and you will see the Sputnik Skull. Difficulty: Legendary Effect: The mass of certain objects is severely reduced, making them fly farther when smacked with a melee hit, or when they are near an explosion. Weapon damage seems to have strengthened slightly. It also has the added effect of making enemies turn around when you hit them, allowing you to kill them in two hits. With the Sputnik Skull's effect in place, players can reach nearly impossible to get to places and much higher altitudes using grenade jumps. Also you can move dead bodies. Status: Confirmed Thunderstorm Level: Cairo Station Directions: In the large room after the armory, you need to use a crouch-jump to get onto a light fixture on the right wall (right of the room when you enter) and then jump from there onto the higher area. There is a series of diagonal beams. Walk up one near to the end of it and use it to duck-jump onto one of the rails. You can fall between the rails, so be careful. Once on the rail, walk down it until you can jump onto the highest platform. Then melee the trashcan a few times, the Skull is right behind it. Alternate Directions:It is possible to Grenade Jump up to the platform if you can't stay on the rails.The Sputnik Skull helps a lot here, but its possible without it.Just get on the ground near the platform the skull is on and Grenade Jump.You also don't need to melee the trashcan out of the way,but meleeing it out of the way reveals a interesting hidden object.Near the skull is a burning cigar that looks like the type of cigar Sargent Johnson uses. Difficulty: Legendary Effect: All Elites (Except "fixed" variants, i.e. Jet-pack, Spec Ops), Grunts (Except fixed variants, like Gunner etc.), Jackals (Except Snipers), and Brutes become their highest rank. All Covenant Flood forms have shields and all Sentinels have shields (Except for those in The Arbiter and The Oracle). Status: Confirmed Unnamed Skull Level: The Armory Directions: At the beginning of the level, after you power your shields for the first time, Sergeant Johnson shows up on an elevator. Wait in the room until the Sarge starts berating you, telling you to get into the elevator. You MUST wait for him to say "Would it help if I said please?" (this takes approximately 4 min. 40 seconds.) Once he says this, get in the elevator, and go down to the tram. Get on the tram, and face towards the INSIDE of the building. Press up against the glass doors towards the inside of the building. You should hold X down, and you should pick up the skull. It's on a stack of green crates, near the end of the tram ride. Difficulty: Legendary Effect: The Unknown Skull strengthens the Artificial Intelligence of both allies and enemies. Enemies will notice the slight shimmer of active camouflage, your characters shadow (whether playing as Master Chief or The Arbiter), the sound of you reloading your weapon, along with many other subtle clues which help them find you. All computer controlled characters have better accuracy, and will no longer blow themselves up with a Rocket Launcher, Fuel Rod Cannon or Brute Shot. A common misconception is that it makes enemies more aware of your location, however it does not. It does, however, make enemy AI target you over allies in a firefight, playing as either the Chief or the Arbiter. Status: Confirmed. Trivia *The file in the H2 code nicknames the Unnamed skull 'Whuppopotamus', although no name for the skull appears in-game. It has been called the "Monkey Skull", Hide-and-Seek Skull," "Please Skull," "Find Me Skull," and "Cowbell Skull", though. But still nothing official. Cowbell is also the name of a skull in Halo 3. *The skulls are used to vary the game a little bit, and the effect of them will go away once you turn off your Xbox, or go to the dashboard on your 360 (or, in Vista, quit out of Halo 2.) *The IWHBYD skull is actually easier to complete with the Envy skull and activating the permanent invisibility glitch, especially against the 7 waves of Elites *The Unnamed Skull is said to be the easiest Skull to get in the game as you do not have to battle any hostiles during this level. Campaign Order #'The Heretic': N/A #'The Armory': Unnamed Skull #'Cairo Station': Thunderstorm #'Outskirts': Blind & I Would Have Been Your Daddy #'Metropolis': Catch #'The Arbiter': Grunt Birthday Party #'The Oracle': Famine #'Delta Halo': Envy #'Regret': Assassins #'Sacred Icon': Mythic #'Quarantine Zone': Sputnik #'Gravemind': Anger #'Uprising': Ghost #'High Charity': Iron #'The Great Journey': Black Eye See also Halo 3 Skulls Sources Skulls SkullsCategory:Halo 2 Easter Eggs